Baltisch Rundfunk
|chief2_name = |chief2_position = |agency_type = |parent_department = |parent_agency = |child1_agency = |child2_agency = |keydocument1= |website = br.bl |footnotes = |map = |map_width = |map_caption = }}Baltisch Rundfunk (Baltish) or the Baltish Broadcasting Corporation ( ), abbreviated to BR, is Baltia's national company, founded in 1925. For the greater part of BR's existence the company was funded by the revenues obtained from a payable by the owners of radio sets (1928–1980) and television sets (1958–2007), as well as receiving a portion of the broadcasting licence fees payable by private television broadcasters. Since the beginning of 2008 the licence fee has been replaced by a public broadcasting tax (known as the BR tax), which is collected annually from private individuals and corporations together with their other taxes. Today, BR operates five national television channels, all of which are distributed via a nationwide network. BR also operates six radio channels. All are available nationally on , and online. .]] 'History' BR was founded on 1 October 1925 under the name of Radiodienst, which was changed to Nationale Radio in 1928, to Baltisch Radio in 1946 and to Baltisch Rundfunk in 1958. It was not until 1928 that radio broadcasts became available throughout the country. After this the broadcasting network was developed and by the beginning of the 1930s, 100,000 households were able to listen to BR programmes. During the Soviet occupation in , radio broadcasts were censored, under particularly harsh conditions from October 1944. During the German occupation, Baltish transmitters were used to broadcast , particularly to , and the western half of the . BR was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the , which was founded in 1950. First test broadcasting started on 6 November 1954 in and it was seen only by 25 television owners. Regular broadcasting started on 22 March 1958 with the first evening news show Panorama. In 1993, it was renamed to BR Neus, as it is known to this day. The second public radio station, BR Radio 2, was oficially launched on 23 March 1965. Colour television test broadcasts were started in January 1968. Baltisch Rundfunk officially ended "test" transmissions of colour television on 31 December 1970, although it wasn't until 1979 that their last television program switched to colour. In 1980, a second public television channel, BR2, was launched coinciding with the . The original television channel is now known as BR1. Eight years later, BR's monopoly on national television finished when TV4 started broadcasting. In 1993 BR launched a third public radio station, BR Radio 3, with programming for linguistic minorities, in particular Baltia's -speaking community. A 24-hour station for classical music, BR Radio 4, (now called "BR Radio Klassik"), introduced in 1995, was the first of its kind to be broadcast digitally using . In 1996 BR launched a new public radio station, the youth-oriented BR Radio Plus. On 4 September 2006 BR launched its third channel: a youth and young adult channel called BR3. The next year, on 18 June 2007, BR launched BR Kids, which is aimed at children. BR3 and BR Kids share the same channel, with BR Kids broadcasting from 06:00 to 19:00 and BR3 from 19:00 to 06:00. On 22 March 2008 BR Play! was launched. This brand is used for the service offered by BR, more specifically to the streaming services offered on the BR website and its counterpart for mobile phones. All of BR's are now available on the internet. Several of BR's are also available on the internet. In early 2012, BR Radio 3 became a station oriented exclusively at the -speaking community in Baltia. On 9 September 2013 BR launched BR4, a -language TV channel for Russian minority. BR1 still holds the strongest position in number of viewers, though the competition from TV4 is getting tougher. 'Organisation' BR's board of directors comprises 11 members appointed for a five-year period renewable once. Three members, including the chair, are appointed by the Ministry of Culture, and six by the Landtag, while the employees of BR elect two members. The board has overall responsibility for BR programs, the budget and for the hiring of BR's chief executive and the remaining management positions. CEOs since the start of BR: * Levin Kaiser (1958-1959) (Chairman of Baltisch Radio since 1953) * Leopold Pilz (1959-1963) * Adam Slesinger (1963-1979) * Udo Tscherning (1979-1981) * Henrik Anschütz (1981-1986) * Reinhold Elsner (1986-1990) * Harold Schenk (1990-2000) * Ursula Tischbein (2000-2005) * Karsten Peterhans (2005-2007) * Markus Albrecht (2007-2017) * Henrik Rossmann (2017-present) 'Financing' Baltia abolished its television fee on 1 January 2008, replacing it with a direct unconditional income tax so-called "BR tax". Unlike the previous fee, the tax is progressive, meaning that people who earn less will pay less and vice versa (from €50 to €135), depending on income. However, the new tax is also applied to all adults and not just once per household, meaning in essence that under the new system, some will pay less than before and others will pay more. Very low-income earners are completely exempt from the BR tax. Before the introduction of the BR tax, the television fee in Baltia used to be between €220.50 and €235.90 (depending on the interval of payments) per annum for a household with TV (as of 2007). It was the primary source of funding for BR, a role which has now been taken over by the BR tax. 'Radio' BR broadcasts radio channels in either analogue format ( ) and digital format (using and ). All channels are also broadcast live over the Internet. * BR Radio 1: News, regional news, current affairs, talk, culture and sports. * BR Radio 2: Entertainment and music (pop and rock) targeted at adults. * BR Radio 3: News, current affairs, culture and music targeted to Baltia's -speaking community. * BR Radio Klassik: Classical music, opera, folk, jazz and world music. * BR Radio Plus: Comedy and music (pop, rock and dance) targeted to a youth audience. * BR Radio World: International broadcaster for foreign listeners and Baltish-speaking citizens abroad. 'Television' 'National' BR channels are distributed via a nationwide network. * BR1: (24h., , , / ). Focuses on news, current affairs, entertainment, sports and drama. * BR2: (24h., , , / ). Focuses on news, politics, culture, arts, documentaries, drama and movies. * BR3: (11h., , , / ). Focuses on factual programmes, entertainment, sports, drama and movies. * BR Kids: (13h., , , / ). Programs for children and (pre-)teens. * BR4: (18h., , , / ). Focuses on news, current affairs, entertainment, sports, documentaries, drama and movies targeted to Baltia's -speaking community. 'International' Channel available worldwide by satellite, cable and online. * B·TV: (24h., , , ). Broadcast a selection of BR's programmes. 'Internet' BR's online presence includes a comprehensive news website and archive. It was launched as BR Online in 1997. According to Kantar Group, br.bl is Baltia's most visited site. Another large part of the site allows users to watch and listen to most Television and Radio output live and for some time after broadcast using BR Play!. 'Musical organizations' 'Controversies' 'See also' Television in Baltia